Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Alexei
Maybe it was psychotic of me. Maybe it was something Dimitri would do but I didn’t care. At every single one of my establishments security had a picture of Carina and Audrey. When either one of them were recognized, I was to be called immediately, it didn’t matter what time it was. So at 2 AM, the call went through and I was proud of myself. Ace wouldn’t know where she was because she was at my joint, but I gave him a courtesy call just in case.
He answered on the first ring. He was ready for action no matter what time it was. I always admired that about him. “Yes?”
“Your bride-to-be is at one of my clubs,” I ran my finger down the end of the counter as I walked by. I was ready to leave, because I knew if Carina was there, Audrey would be sure to follow, if she wasn’t already there.
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“How?”
“I have her location, dummy.”
My lips pursed, why hadn’t I thought of that with Audrey?
Oh yeah, because we weren’t getting married.
The thought did something funny to me. I’d never thought of even tying myself romantically to anyone before but the longer I thought about it I could see Audrey walking down the aisle toward me in a white gown, her face partially covered by a veil.
I swallowed.
Oh God.
Maybe I didn’t need to think of a retrieval mission. Maybe I needed to go back to bed and take a bottle of bourbon with me. Squaring my shoulders, my phone pressed firmly against my face, I exited my penthouse.
“So are we going to intercept?”
I could practically hear my brother smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Ace was dressed in black slacks, a black button-down, and shiny black derby shoes. My clothing was similar except my button-down was white. We stuck out like sore thumbs but we also didn’t care. We owned this club and most of them around the city. Our father probably owned most of the places these people were employed at. I didn’t care to blend in with them. There was a reason we stuck out. My eyes skipped over the gyrating crowd beneath us. Ace ordered a drink, I wasn’t sure if it was for show or not. I didn’t bother.
My eyes immediately found Audrey. She grinned as she danced in a circle and swiveled her hips against the woman I’d seen her with a few times in Central Park. She was a cute willowy woman. Her blonde corkscrews were tied up on her head and her clothes matched all the other times I’d seen her. Hippie-chic was the only way to describe her. She seemed nice and I didn’t want to interfere with Audrey’s friendships so I honed my crazy in and didn’t try to do a deep dive into her life. Even though I could have known everything about her in five minutes, I didn’t. It was shocking and completely unlike me.
Carina was wearing a tight crop top with boxy jeans and Converse. She jumped around the girls in a circle and even threw a few death glares when some guys got too close. She was the protector tonight, it seemed.
Both of them had nothing on Audrey. I knew as soon as I focused on her, I wouldn’t be able to stop staring. Her tight red dress would fuel adolescent wet dreams for the rest of my existence. I wouldn’t be able to cum without seeing her in it. Every outfit she put on was enough to drive me over the edge, but this one was it . Her heels made her legs look so delicious, I could feel myself salivating just thinking about tasting them.
God, tasting her , it was every single fantasy brought to life.
“Would you like to interrupt?” I shouted over the music.
Ace took a long sip out of his drink as he watched Carina. “No.”
I leaned against the bar beside him and nodded. “Okay.”
We waited for them as they stumbled out of the club. We’d watched them dance for an hour before they looked exhausted and we knew it was only time. My shoulder ached and I wanted nothing more than to take a shower, but my body needed Audrey. My mind needed to know she was safe. My hands needed to touch her, grasp her curves. My mouth needed to taste, lick, and tease. My shoulder be damned, I didn’t care. I wanted her. I needed her. I was going to have her.
Her cheeks brightened to a soft pink when her eyes landed on me waiting beside Ace. Her lips formed a perfect pout as she hugged her friends goodbye. There were more with them than I originally noticed, but then again, I hadn’t noticed anything after I’d set my sights on her.
“See you guys on Monday!” They waved and Carina immediately launched herself into Ace’s arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and I fought a smile.
Ace gave me the look of you’ve got this? And I nodded.
He carted his future wife to his SUV and they were gone in a fit of kisses, no glances back.
“Hi, I’m sorry,” Audrey crossed her arms over her chest and it did nothing but cause her breasts to push up further in the low neckline. “I should have told you where I was going. It doesn’t take long to send a text.” She brushed her hair back from her face, a nervous gesture I assumed. “I probably shouldn’t have drank as much as I did either.”
I frowned as I stepped closer to her, ready to cart her off to my car and have my way with her. But I couldn’t do that until she understood something first. I leaned into her and brushed her hair behind her ear.
“First, do not ever apologize. You could have sent me a text message but we haven’t exactly talked about what we are. Second, and listen carefully,” I leaned in and ran my nose up the side of her cheek and her eyes immediately darkened. “I want to see you wild, I want to see you calm, I want to see you in every element. Know I will never make you feel like you can’t authentically be yourself anywhere you are. Do you want to drink and dance? Do it. Do you want to be quiet and observant? I want to see her. Do you want to be you? Please, please, always be that. I saw you tonight being yourself and having fun. I was just here to make sure you were safe. That’s all that matters to me.”
The light pink of her cheeks darkened to a deep red and she blinked rapidly as she processed what I said. I didn’t think I’d even processed what I’d said. But every single word of it was authentic and true. All I cared about was her safety. I didn’t want some fucker touching on her but it was her body. If she decided she didn’t want me and she wanted someone else, I would deal—not good— with it.
“Do you really mean that?” Her whisper rang through my body and vibrated my bones.
“Absolutely with every single fiber of my being.”
In seconds, she was on me. I winced into her mouth as pain rocketed down my shoulder. She pulled back shocked, “I’m so sorry. I forgot.”
“All I want is to touch you.”
When her lips met mine, it took everything inside of me not to take her on the damn sidewalk, instead, we stumbled to my car, where my driver was waiting and barely made it back to my penthouse before we were tearing off our clothes.
She was trying to be careful with my shoulder, but I didn’t care. The pain didn’t bother me, I’d been through much worse. What bothered me was not having her on me—not being inside of her.
When we stumbled to my bedroom, she took a minute to take in my very plain and boring space. Everything was modern in design which was just another word for simple and no personality. I hated it and didn’t care for spending time here but maybe one day I would. Or maybe one day I would leave this place behind and find what Audrey wanted. I would buy her whatever she wanted, wherever she wanted. Even if it meant going to the other side of the country to live near her parents. I didn’t care, I would do whatever I could to keep her happy.
I unbuttoned my shirt while she looked over the bookcase that spanned the back wall on either side of my bed. They weren’t my books, I hadn’t even checked the titles. They were something the designer picked out that I allowed my mother to hire when I moved in. She took one look at me and threw all of my mother’s ideas out the window. At the time, it was what I needed. I’d never needed anything cozy with emotion. But now? Now I wished it had more personality.
“These your favorites?” She asked as she looked over her shoulder. Her gaze was glassy and her cheeks were still pink. There was a spot on the back of her dress and her hair was tangled from dancing. She’d never looked so perfect, but she was drunk. Why had I chosen tonight to be self-righteous? I hated myself as I carefully peeled my shirt off of my body.
“Nope, never read them.”
She blinked. “Why not?”
“Someone else picked them out and put them in here.”
She spread her arms wide and turned around. “What do you mean? You haven’t read a single one? You weren’t even curious?”
The black and grey colored cases on the books didn’t entice me. Though I’d never been much of a reader, I could appreciate books. I’d aced my way through boarding school and an Ivy League college. I wasn’t stupid by any means or I wouldn’t have been able to do everything I had, but I also didn’t care to read for fun. I read when I needed information, I read when I needed to study, and I read when I needed to learn. There was nothing fun about words printed on a page. But I knew she felt differently. I’d seen her read a lot, I’d even taken a peak at the manuscript she was working on after she fell asleep.
“No, they look boring.”
She snorted. “Rich people are weird.”
“Maybe one day you can put your favorites up there, I’d much rather those than these ugly things.”
Her smile was soft and satisfied before it fell away. “I need to tell you something.”
She wasn’t slurring so maybe she wasn’t as drunk as I thought. That was a good sign.
I stopped my thoughts in their tracks before my dick could get excited. “What’s that?”
“I got a job.”
My first thought was— why does she need that? My second thought was— I’m not going to be able to spend as much time with her as I’d like. Third thought— I can buy the company out and then have her fired discretely so she has to spend all of her time with me.
“Oh?” I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t want to say anything else. I was devastated. “Are you excited?”
“It’s with that publishing house, James & Evers.” She sounded like she was holding back on her excitement.
Wait.
Fuck, I definitely couldn’t buy them out.
A smile stretched across my face, even though it was painful. “That’s incredible! Did you apply?” I really didn’t know how job hunting went. I was very out of touch with the simple life it seemed.
She turned back to the bookcase and ran her finger down the spine of a book. It set my mind on fire. I was trying so hard to stay stoic when all I wanted to do was pin her on the bed that separated us.
“You didn’t…” She trailed off and shook her head. “You didn’t do something about it, did you?”
Once again, all of my thoughts skidded to a halt. “What do you mean?”
She turned back toward me and ran her hands down her face. Her mascara had begun to smear under her eyes and once again, I was struggling to remain in the moment. “You don’t know the CEO of James & Evers?”
If she hadn’t been so serious, it would have almost been comical. A small sound that almost resembled a laugh escaped me. “I don’t read for fun or for anything other than to learn or when it suits me. There would be no reason for me to know who owns James & Evers.” Even though I did know who he was, I didn’t know him personally, I hadn’t ever cared to introduce myself. He was present at most fundraisers around the city that I was dragged to by my parents. “My father knows him but they don’t exactly intermingle. My father wants the kind of change people are fighting around here. James wants good change, my father is the villain around these parts.”
Her face fell for a moment. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
I closed the distance between us quickly and took her face between my hands. “You have every right to expect the worst from me, but know this, I won’t get you a job, Malaya . I will prevent you from working if anything, so you can spend all of your time with me.”
“Why on earth would you want to spend so much time with me?” Her eyes jumped between mine searching for her answers in my gaze.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
She shook her head and I decided that she would have to let my body tell her everything that my mouth couldn’t.